NJ theme park puts animatronic dinosaurs on Facebook Marketplace

2025-09-2815:4013359gizmodo.com

"Just be sure you’ve got a big backyard."

Have you ever wanted to own gigantic, realistic-looking dinosaurs for your backyard? Now might be your chance to scoop some up. Provided you have a few thousand dollars lying around.

The New Jersey theme park Field Station: Dinosaurs is closing Nov. 9, and they’re listing all their dinos on Facebook Marketplace. There are plenty to choose from, including a 52-foot-long Spinosaurus ($2,900), a Hadrosaurus with eggs and nest ($2,450), and a bright blue Parasaurolophus ($2,410).

Some of the dinosaurs have limited movement and voice boxes, along with controls. And everything must go, according to the park.

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© Field Station: Dinosaurs / Facebook

“Where do 30 plus dinosaurs go when their park closes?” Guy Gsell, the park’s executive producer, told NewJersey.com. “Hopefully to a good home — or maybe a few unexpected places. We’re ready to let the public make their best offers. Just be sure you’ve got a big backyard.”

The theme park opened in Secaucus in 2012 but had to close down in 2015 to make way for a new high school that was being built. Field Station: Dinosaurs moved to the Henry Hoebel Area of Overpeck Park in Leonia, New Jersey, in 2016.

The dinosaurs range in price from about $500 to almost $3,000, depending on the size. Listings for the dinosaurs note that “Buyers are responsible for all deinstallation and shipping/transportation costs,” while explaining that the theme park “will arrange to have all necessary equipment on site. Dinosaurs available for pick-up after November 9.”

The theme park recently appeared on a Fox reality show called The Fixer, where struggling small businesses get help, but it obviously wasn’t enough to keep this New Jersey attraction around.

Anyone who wants to see the theme park for its last hurrah still has an opportunity. There’s the “Jurassic Petting Zoo” Sept. 27 and 28, where visitors can get up-close encounters and “amazing photo ops” next to the dinos.

And there’s a special “Dinosaurs After Dark” event happening Friday and Saturday nights from Oct. 3-25 between 7:00 and 9:30 pm.

From the theme park’s website:

A spooky, funny and thrilling adventure for the whole family featuring a lantern lit tour of the park, games and activities where everyone is a winner, and The Dinosaur Séance, a mysterious thrill ride into the shadowy realm of dinosaur ghosts. America’s only Mesozoic medium and Cretaceous conjurer will be our guide as we journey into the Jurassic (Spirit) World and summon the long-lost spectres of the prehistoric dearly departed. Sometimes scary, sometimes funny but always surprising, the show features new puppets created by the acclaimed fabricators at Palmieri Puppets.

At the end of the night, everyone will gather around the campfire for a dinosaur song-a-long with the Dinosaur Troubadour. A thrilling adventure you don’t want to miss. Limited tickets; reservations highly recommended.

The park is also hosting a “Dogs & Dinos” day on Monday, October 13, from 10 am-5 pm, where visitors are allowed to bring their dogs.


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Comments

  • By happyllama 2025-10-013:524 reply

    Time to start a crowdfunding effort to help buy these for the Flinstone’s Lady house off of 280 [1] [2]

    [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flintstone_House [2] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/06/flintstone-h...

    • By mkl 2025-10-018:082 reply

      I don't think she needs crowdfunding: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Fang

      • By Scoundreller 2025-10-018:513 reply

        > In 2000, when the Hearst Corporation was facing antitrust concerns (including from Fang) over its acquisition of the San Francisco Chronicle, she acquired the San Francisco Examiner from them for $100 while also receiving a $66 million subsidy from Hearst to run the Examiner for three years, becoming the first Asian American to own a major daily newspaper in the US.[4][7][5] In 2004, she sold it to Philip Anschutz for $11 million.[7]

        How do I get this kind of deal?

        • By seanhunter 2025-10-0115:55

          Most of the time when people acquire something for $1 or $100 or whatever the deal includes them assuming some of the existing liabilities. Sometimes you have to pay a consideration of value to make the contract enforceable but the $100 isn't what she's actually providing, she's probably underwritten some of the creditors or agreed to pay staff and suppliers or whatever. It's not actually $100 is the whole amount she would have been on the hook for.

        • By rsynnott 2025-10-0112:441 reply

          I suspect for every person who's bought a company for nothing, and ended up in profit, there are _many_ people who've bought a company for nothing, and ended up blowing millions on it. Unless you're really good at this sort of thing and/or lucky it may not be a deal you _want_.

          • By Workaccount2 2025-10-0114:342 reply

            The whole set of wealthy people is a small subset of the tried-to-get-wealthy set.

            Society has a hyper-fixation on the winners, and is largely blind to the much larger set of losers. "School of Hard Knocks", the social media channel where the kid goes around interviewing wealthy and ultra wealthy individuals about how they made it, has a very common theme: "Be willing to take risks".

            This pretty much translates to "I put it all on black 3 times, and it hit 3 times". He never interviews the losers.

            • By OkayPhysicist 2025-10-0116:081 reply

              It's not a subset, as there are plenty of people who are wealthy because someone up their family tree tried and succeeded at getting wealthy, and subsequent generations simply failed to be in the "actively try to get poor" set.

              • By conception 2025-10-0117:15

                By plenty you mean most. Class movement is generally a fiction.

            • By psunavy03 2025-10-0116:271 reply

              The difference is that "I put it all on black 3 times" is purely up to chance, whereas business is generally not. There is luck involved, but skill or at least expertise about what the market will support still comes into play.

              Someone who knows what they're doing has a much greater likelihood of success, unlike when you put it all on black.

              • By Workaccount2 2025-10-0117:48

                Correct, you have to work hard and know what you are doing just to get a chance to sit at the table.

        • By bluGill 2025-10-0113:10

          It helps to have success. I know someone who the bank called (before I was born - likely 1960s) to buy a nearly bankrupt plumbing business. He turned the company around and sold it for a lot of money a few years later. However the banks called he has a history of success running businesses. He did a similar story with a trash pickup service a different time.

      • By fnordian_slip 2025-10-019:241 reply

        Damn, both her Wikipedia article as well that of her as her "archenemy" Rose Pak are fascinating (even though I don't like either of them based on what I read).

        • By hennell 2025-10-0112:21

          I misread that as 'her "archenemy" Rosa Parks' and had some concerns for a second...

    • By tetris11 2025-10-0114:56

      Or to upgrade the existing ones at Crystal Palace park

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Palace_Dinosaurs

    • By lobochrome 2025-10-016:58

      I’ve driven past that house a million times and always thought to look it up - and always immediately forgot again.

      Now you reminded me and I know the backstory

    • By Animats 2025-10-017:04

      What, is that thing for sale again?

  • By Stratoscope 2025-10-017:41

    If you ever find yourself on Highway 101 south of Port Orford, Oregon, Prehistoric Gardens is a must-visit:

    https://maps.app.goo.gl/nncu1vYRtGoK83Rg6

    My sister and I went there with our mom and our dachshund Bismark when I was a kid. They had a "no dogs allowed" sign, but we figured it wouldn't hurt to ask. The guy in the ticket booth looked at Bismark and asked, "Is that a dog or a Texas flea?"

    We found out that Texas fleas were allowed in!

  • By Nursie 2025-10-014:124 reply

    > Have you ever wanted to own gigantic, realistic-looking dinosaurs for your backyard?

    Yes, we have an approx 1-acre paddock next to the road that's completely unused and I really want dinosaurs!

    I don't even need them animatronic, static will do. There just aren't many vendors for this sort of thing. It's a shame that shipping from NJ to Western Australia is likely to be prohibitive...

    • By defrost 2025-10-0110:141 reply

      Hey now, let's not forget the Australovenator

        Constructed from retired tools, machine parts and farm scrap collected throughout rural Western Australia.
      
      ~ https://www.jordanspriggsculptures.com.au/australovenator

      and a home ground culture that loves scrap metal* and Mig welders.

      * https://ictv.com.au/video/11144-stompem-ground-scrap-metal-t...

      • By Nursie 2025-10-0110:361 reply

        I mean that is amazing, and I would imagine fetched a fair whack more than this theme park wants for its second-hand animatronics!

        • By defrost 2025-10-021:471 reply

          It's a nice piece done up well and made with the intent to sell, sure.

          One of the fun things about W.Australia (and elsewhere) is the number of people that make semi decent scrap art for the fun of and put it up on their properties or roadside (the road into the town where I am now has a 30+ year history of having various (large) trees "dressed up" Mr. Potato Head style).

          The Broome dino I linked above is a throw to history I lived as a child, following dinosaur tracks in various places when the tide went out or sand banks shifted.

          People are less open about sharing where tracks are now, for good reason: https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/science-environment/...

          • By Nursie 2025-10-022:27

            I remember heading out of Perth to the South about 15 years ago and at some point passing a field with various UFOs and other pieces of scrap art arranged along the roadside. I should probably figure out welding at some point!

            We're on the edges of Perth metro and would be quite happy being the weird dino house.

            There's already (though I haven't seen it for a few months) a Pajero around here that has a Jurassic Park style wrap on it, that drives by once in a while.

    • By ants_everywhere 2025-10-015:171 reply

      > There just aren't many vendors for this sort of thing

      There's always alibaba

      https://www.alibaba.com/trade/search?SearchText=animatronic%...

      • By SenHeng 2025-10-0115:181 reply

        I expected 2 more zeros. That's cheap!

        • By ants_everywhere 2025-10-0120:54

          yeah me too! I thought the ones on facebook marketplace were cheap. It looks like they're about the same price new.

    • By Buildstarted 2025-10-014:47

    • By bigiain 2025-10-015:57

      You need someone to go and 3D scan them for you, then get your YouTube channel big enough for a Bambu Labs sponsorship.

      And a lot of filament. A _lot_ of filament...

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